


Behind Door Number Three

by Android_And_Ale



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: BROtp with Cisco and Wally, But they also want everyone else in their lives to be happy, Christmas, Cisco and Wally just want to give Harrison and Jesse a good reason to stay, Cisco has it so bad for Harry, Gen, Jesse never sent the Cube, M/M, Pre-Slash, Secret Projects, Super Secret Santa, Unrequited Love, good feels, happy holiday fun times, harrisco, nerd boys making dramatic gestures, soon to be requited, sweet nerds doing nice things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-09 22:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13491123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Android_And_Ale/pseuds/Android_And_Ale
Summary: Cisco adorkably teams up with Wally West to ensure sure that this Christmas, both Harrison and Jesse Wells feel at home on Earth-1.





	Behind Door Number Three

“Do I wanna know why there’s an emergency chemical wash sink in the elevator?” asked Wally West.

Cisco leaned out the elevator, furtively glancing up and down the hallway. His security app said the building was empty, but then, security wasn’t his strong suit. He put a finger over his lips. “Shh! You’ll ruin the surprise!”

“The Emergency Eye Wash Surprise?” asked Wally, reading the instructions still attached to the side of the sink. “Really, man, you’d be better off blasting the team with a super soaker. Or straight up making them drink from a fire hose.” 

Cisco punched the M-3 button. A jury rigged keycard stuck out of a discrete slot below the M buttons. The wires dangling from its back all merged into a headphone jack which was plugged into Cisco’s phone. Wally raised his eyebrows. “What’s on Star Labs ‘M’ levels?” 

“You can’t tell anyone, dude,” said Cisco. “Not even Iris.” Especially not Iris. One whiff of this and she’d take over in a hot second. 

“You breached aliens onto the abandoned floors, didn’t you,” said Wally. He leaned against the elevator wall, watching Cisco with playful suspicion. 

Cisco crossed his arms. “Man, no! I’d never do that.”

“You’ve got little alien babies crawling around up on the top level, all calling you Papi. You’re totally gonna use this for their alien baby shower.” Wally lightly kicked the massive steel sink. 

“It’s not a baby shower,” Cisco protested. 

“That’s just cold, man. When you adopt a dozen alien babies you should at least let us throw you a party, Papi.” Wally crossed his arms, shaking his head in mock offense. “You just gotta tell us how  many arm holes to cut in the onesies.” 

“How did I end up with a dozen alien babies?” Cisco huffed as he awkwardly hoisted the emergency chemical wash sink he’d looted from sub-basement 1. 

“How’d you end up with that sentient slime mold colony you sold to the Japanese government?” Wally raised his eyebrows suggestively, but still helped Cisco, curious. 

He’d never been up to the old STAR Labs top management floor. It was all real wood paneling with mosaic tile floors in fibonacci sequences and art deco light fixtures. It was totally unlike the sterile concrete sub-basement which was designed to be easy to hose down in case of emergencies. 

Cisco bumped a door open with his hip.  “Sven the Slime Mold loves his job. He’s better at predicting human traffic patterns than any computer, plus they pay him in bitcoin and a never ending supply of his favorite oat flakes. He saved a lot of lives after the Tsunami.”  He nodded towards a door. Wally pushed it open, holding it as Cisco hauled the sink inside.*

“Dude.” Wally stared around in wonder. “What the hell am I looking at?”

Cisco dropped the sink next to the rest of the looted plumbing. The floor was a mess of pipes, faucet heads, knobs, soap and paper towel dispensers, plus an entire wall of reprogrammable lockers. Through a door sized hole in the drywall, Wally could see the best couch that’d gone missing from STAR Labs downstairs lobby, two overstuffed arm chairs, a dozen 20” computer monitors, and way too much industrial shelving. A couple of the shelves held cans of paint. 

Cisco stuck his head out the door, scanning the empty hallway for evidence anyone followed them. When satisfied, he pulled the door shut, grinned at Wally, and softly said, “Harry’s Christmas present.” 

*******

Wally was ALL IN. The speedster thoroughly cataloged STAR Labs abandoned rooms, creating the first accurate map of the facility since the Particle Accelerator Explosion. Cisco was both disgusted and impressed to realize they weren’t the first people to loot the building for supplies. 

“I stopped by the scrap yard to get a couple things for Jesse’s room,” Wally said, the next day.

“You’re such a romantic,” Cisco replied. “Now help me with this shower head.” 

Plumbing was the most difficult part of transforming the abandoned offices into a liveable apartment space. To make life easier, Cisco started with the fancy ass Executive Women's Restroom on management’s top floor as the centerpiece of the apartment. Then he and Wally sledgehammered walls like Peter Gabriel in the 80’s until they’d strung together a cosy two bedroom out of former Vice Presidential offices on either side. 

The bathroom itself was already pretty damn sweet with it’s classy blue and white tile, faux stone bowl sinks, and wood toilet stalls with doors that actually closed all the way. But a man can’t clean up in a sink forever. 

STAR Labs didn’t have any bathtubs lying around, but if you knew which of the more experimental biochem labs to search, there were plenty of high pressure showerheads.  Wally acquired a dozen boxes of dark blue bathroom tiles and a pallet of glass bricks. Cisco didn’t ask how. When everyone else went home at night, the pair snuck upstairs to create a 6x8 tile and glass brick shower enclosure with two movable shower heads pointing at the center of the room, plus plenty of artsy tile shelving sticking out of the walls. 

“When Papa Wells is being a baller back on Earth-2, Jesse and I are really gonna enjoy this,” said Wally. 

“You nasty,” Cisco grinned. 

“Riiiight,” Wally snorted. “Like you haven’t already rehearsed sci-fi reasons you and the Doctor need to take a hard core ‘decontamination shower’ together.”

Cisco sputtered innocently, color flushing his cheeks. “Pass me the grout, you perv.” 

 

*******

 

Cisco and Wally sat cross legged in front of a pile of looted desk supplies and wrapping paper. 

“I still can’t believe people left so much awesome stuff in their desks!” Wally gushed. 

Cisco smiled a little sadly, but shrugged. “Life was weird after the particle accelerator explosion. Some people treated everything inside STAR Labs like it was radioactive.” Too many of the people who would’ve corrected them died that night. Either way, their desks were abandoned, just collecting dust since the staff dwindled from hundreds down to dozens down to just Cisco, Caitlin, and the fake Dr. Wells. 

Repurposing chemical sinks and Ikea furniture was one thing, but Cisco didn’t want to touch the contents of anyone’s desk. Especially not if he knew their name. Wally passionately argued that the people who sat at these desks clearly loved their stuff. Why else would they pick these things to spend 9 hours with every day? They wouldn’t want it all thrown in a dumpster when the facility was razed. They’d want to know the things they loved brought other people joy. 

Wally’s sunshine grin was infectious. Instead of arguing against him, Cisco found himself sitting on the floor of the fake Dr. Wells office - the one place no one would expect to find them - transforming the best stuff they’d looted from desks and offices across the building into presents for his friends and colleagues. 

“Do you think Caitlin will like this?” Cisco held up a duck shaped USB finger warmer with an O-shaped mouth that a porn star would envy. “You stuff a finger into the hot opening to keep it warm.” 

Wally giggled as Cisco graphically demonstrated.     
  
“No, but Killer Frost is gonna love it.” Wally winked. Cisco pondered for a moment, then ripped off the tag and wrote another one, “To Killer Frost, from Krampus.” 

Wally held up a desk organizer shaped like a classic Nikon camera. “My sister’s gonna love this.” He tossed in a neatly wrapped bundle of pencils, some puppy shaped post-it-notes, and half a dozen pens that ended in high-fives with smiley faces on their palms. He wrote, “To Iris - looking forward to your 1st pulitzer. -- Santa.” 

“Is it wrong of me to wrap these for myself?” Cisco held up a letter opener set with the Gryffindor lion holding a sword. He pulled the sword free and pointed at some badly fake-aged pleather bound blank journals with Hogwarts house names on the front. 

“I’m a Hufflepuff,” said Wally. “Wrap up that journal and the triangular desk lamp for me, then wrap the rest for yourself.”

Cisco raised his eyebrows. He’d had an eye on the lamp for himself. 

“It’ll be suspicious if Santa doesn’t leave either of us any gifts!” said Wally. Cisco sighed. Easy come, easy go. 

While they were on a Harry Potter kick, they piled every Golden Snitch themed object into one big box along with a horde of packing peanuts. Wally labeled it, ‘To Bartholomew, from Dumbledore.’ He winked at Cisco. “One old bearded white guy is as good as another, right?”

They spent the rest of the night one-upping each other signing gifts to the team from Charles Darwin, Wolf Blitzer, and Anthony Varrecchia. 

“Wait,” said Cisco, “Who’s that last one?”

Wally pulled up his Instagram account and showed him photos of a muscular, dignified grey haired man with abs, a full beard, abs, rock hard biceps, abs, a floof of snow white chest hair, and more abs. 

“Damn!” Cisco hissed in appreciation. “That’s the right kind of Bad Santa!” 

He tucked a fuzzy yellow sweater emblazoned with, ‘Police Line Do Not Cross’ into a mug shaped like a Simpson’s Doughnut for Captain Singh. 

Wally flashed Cisco his sunshine grin. The wrapping paper blew across the floor as the speedster disappeared in a flash of light. A moment later he reappeared with a service and staff list for the CCPD’s central station. 

“I don’t know anything about most of these people,” Cisco admitted, flipping through the list. 

“Good,” Wally grinned. “They won’t be able to guess you’re the whole station’s Secret Santa.” Cisco grinned in return. They dug into the pile of office goodies, plopping a Batarang shaped bottle opener and a flask inside a mini desk sized trash can for the senior custodian, a mustache shaped comb and some beard wax for Joe’s mustachioed new partner, and a gently used Lifestraw water filter for a dude with the last name Camperman. 

By the time they worked through the entire pile of office goods they had one gift for everyone at CCPD and 2-3 gifts for everyone Team-Flash Adjacent, including themselves. 

“Dude, we are awesome!” Wally held up his hand for a high-five. 

Cisco grinned, cheerfully slapping his palm. “They’re gonna love this!”

 

*******

 

“Honestly, Captain. I...think they’re from Santa?” Cisco didn’t mean for it to sound so much like a question. He stared sadly at the pile of unwrapped presents and crushed boxes. Under Singh’s watchful eye he’d scanned the unexpected bounty piled under the station’s Christmas tree for everything from radiation to poison to bugs. The rest of CCPD poked a head in from time to time, taking turns warily watching their tech contractor. 

“Are you sure there’s nothing here from The Trickster?” asked Singh. “Or some new meta we’ve never heard of? Maybe some kind of anger inducing adhesive, or sex pollen that’ll explode from the boxes.” 

Cisco held up a tiny USB refrigerator just large enough to fit a single can of soda. “I think they’re all office gag gifts, sir.”

“Who the hell gifts someone a scratch off map of the world with Ceylon, Estonia, and East Germany scratched off?” Singh demanded.

“Someone who knows those nations no longer exist?” suggested Cisco. 

Singh glared at the massive pile of unwrapped presents. “Fine. If you think it’s safe then get rid of them. You have my permission to use the bomb squad’s test range.” He handed Cisco a box of garbage bags pilfered from the custodian. 

“Captain,” Cisco proffered a roll of tape and suggestively glanced at the massive stack of free weekly alternative papers in their wire stand by the door. “They’re harmless. And Christmas is next week. I’ve got a better idea.” 

  
  


*******

 

When Cisco finally washed the printer’s ink off his hands and breached back to STAR Labs, Harry was pointing his pulse rifle at Wally’s hand made twisted metal take on Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. Cisco sighed. “I’m tired. I am so tired. Can we not do this today?”

Barry stood between Harry and the tree, palms up and out in a placating gesture. “It’s okay, Harry. Honest! I got a message from Santa saying everyone has been extra good this year.”

Cisco stared suspiciously at Wally’s Art Nouveau tree sculpture. Whaddya know - since the two holiday elves snuck it downstairs in the wee hours, the presents they piled under it seemed to have doubled. 

Harry narrowed his eyes, not moving the pulse rifle. “Elderly man in a red suit. Noted. What kind of meta powers did he have again?” 

“He’s SANTA!” Barry insisted. 

Harry nodded. “Right. Then mind control, time travel, possible dimensional travel, stalking, breaking and entering…”

“Is Santa a bad guy on Earth Two?” asked Cisco. 

“Cisco, let’s pull up security footage,” said Caitlin. “Was this meta wearing an actual Santa suit or is Bad Santa his nickname?” Caitlin looked to Cisco for confirmation. Cisco’s hands covered his face as he tried to take deep, slow breaths. 

Harry leaned over to pick up a box and shook it gently. “Could be your trickster again.” 

Cisco snatched the wrapped present from Harry’s hands. “No! No, no, no! Positivity, people! Santa Bear just wanted to bring a little holiday spirit to the crew!” He winked at Barry, who shot him a conspiratorial grin back. 

“I see.” Harry nodded slowly. “So we’re dealing with a sentient bear. That explains the Santa suit. Hard to find something that’ll fit when your shoulders are that broad.”

Cisco couldn’t tell if Harry was serious or screwing with them, but the pulse rifle still pointed at the presents had him leaning towards the former. “NO! It’s just...Holy Hannah.” He deflated, too exhausted for this conversation. “It’s just a bunch of small presents. Like normal people give their friends.” 

“We should examine them to be sure,” said Harry. 

“At the very least an x-ray.” Caitlin nodded agreement. “And a full particulate scan. We don’t want another sex pollen incident.”

Barry gracefully sauntered across the room to stand behind Cisco. Everything Barry did was graceful. If the scarlet speedster wasn’t his best friend, Cisco knew he’d be disgusted by it. Barry gave Cisco a sad but knowing smile as he squeezed his shoulder. 

“You’ll just be disappointed,” Barry told Harry and Caitlin. “Honest. Rumor has it the presents are all kinda lame. Just stuff for fun, you know?”

“How can you be sure?” Harry demanded. His pulse rifle dropped a couple inches, but could easily be brought back into focus on the metal tree sculpture. 

“The fastest man alive was once a teenage boy who couldn’t wait until Christmas morning.” Barry’s wide grin took on a slightly guilty hint as he handed Cisco an empty tape dispenser. He pulled a golden snitch Christmas Tree ornament out of his hoodie pocket and hung it on Wally’s sad metal tree. “Charles Darwin gives the best presents.”

 

*******

 

By Christmas Eve the piles under both the STAR Labs and CCPD station trees were starting to look like a competition. Sure, every new thing that appeared under the trees went through a metal detector and a series of hazard scanners, but as long as they came out clean both Singh and Barry were happy to leave them under the tree. Whenever Cisco found someone sneaking in more than three times to check the tags in case anyone left them a present, he and Wally made sure one of their Bad Santas left them two more gifts. Anyone that insecure needed a little extra love, and between STAR Labs pilfered desks and Wally’s junkyard runs, this holiday season they had a lot of love to give. 

A couple days before Christmas the STAR Labs tree started sprouting gifts from specific individuals. Caitlin left something for Cisco. Joe left a present for Harry. Iris left a present for Jesse. 

On Christmas Eve itself, Wally and Cisco made sure everyone at STAR Labs had the same number of presents. To their mutual delight and surprise that added up to five per person. 

  
  


*******

 

Cisco and Wally knew it was a gamble, but hell, they’d been working their asses off for the last month. It was worth the risk just in case it paid off. 

The night before Christmas Eve they snuck Wally’s home made Charlie Brown tree and all the presents engulfing it into Joe’s living room. In their place they left a single note with a key-card attached. 

Harry’s eyes narrowed, staring at it. “I’m not him.” He handed Barry the key and note, both addressed to ‘Dr. Wells.’

“I don’t think it’s for Eobard, man,” said Barry. His glance slid over to Cisco and Wally, who were busy failing to look neutrally indifferent. “I think it’s for you.”

“What does it say?” asked Iris. 

Harry handed it to her. She read it twice, shrugged, and said, “We’ve got two speedsters, a breacher, a cop, a doctor, and you with your big ass gun. I’m not worried about a snake - or anything else we find in this ‘Chamber of Secrets’.” She turned, her high heels clicking on the Cortex floor as she strode off towards the elevators, key card in hand. Barry surveyed the room, shrugged once, and followed her. More out of habit than inclination, Caitlin, Joe, and Harry followed her. Cisco and Wally exchanged a quiet High Five behind their backs as they took up the rear. 

It was a tight fit, but everybody squeezed into the elevator. Following the instructions on the note, Iris pushed the keycard into the Management Only slot. As the last person on the elevator, when they got off Cisco was easily able to lead them to the door outside the surprise present he and Wally prepared. 

“Hey, Harry! I think this needs your  palm print!” He pointed at the reader mounted on the wall outside a door that read ‘Dr. Harrison Wells.’

Harry narrowed his eyes, glaring suspiciously at the door. “Is Christmas really the time for me to open one of Thawne’s secret vaults? That’s not the kind of surprise people want to find in their stockings.”

“Just open the door already, Ebeneezer,” said Cisco. 

Harry stared hard into Cisco’s eyes while he pressed his palm against the reader. Cisco crossed his arms and stared back, unblinking. Everyone else shuffled uncomfortably, waiting for something, anything to happen. 

A green light flashed and the door opened. Inside, Jesse Wells shouted, “Surprise!” and threw confetti at them all. Harry leveled his gun, wincing as he reflexively aimed at his only daughter. He took a deep breath and lowered it. 

“Good to see you, Quick.” 

“Just come inside already, grumpy cat!” She wrapped her arms around his neck.  Harry felt his entire body relax into the warmth of his daughter’s embrace. 

The rest of Team Flash edged in on either side of them. 

“Wait. How? What is this?” Caitlin turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. 

Iris put a hand over her mouth, leaning hard against Barry as she tried not to laugh. “Get your  ass to a pet shop, baby,” she whispered. “We need a turtle.” 

Wally slid in next to Jesse, who now stood with her arm looped around her father’s waist. She  beamed up at him. 

“Do you like it, Dr. Wells?” Wally asked. 

Harry’s gaze slowly slid over the open concept public area Cisco and Wally carved out of multiple offices. The kitchen had a massive industrial steel sink flanked by half a dozen cubicle mini-fridges, a pair of microwaves, a toaster oven, two hot plates, and a dizzying assortment of small appliances that would fit neatly into desk drawers. 

“Hey! If you turn the plates over, we can make either quesadillas or paninis on this!” Barry cheerfully held up a small grill. 

Caitlin frowned at something that looked like a two slice toaster attached to a petri dish incubator. “Is that an Egg McMuffin maker?”

Joe stopped next to an espresso maker larger than the one at Jitter’s. “No excuse to be late in the morning,” he said, tapping it lightly. 

A few steps away from the oddly assembled kitchen was a conference room table painted a deep copper brown, stenciled with Art Deco designs Jesse brought over from Earth-2. It was flanked by half a dozen spinning office chairs. 

The living area was dominated by the best couch from the downstairs lobby - which mysteriously went missing weeks ago - flanked by four plush arm chairs looted from the former Vice Presidential suites. They were all aimed at an array of twelve 20-inch monitors mounted on the wall. Cisco handed him a Playstation 4 controller. “You’ve got Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Starz for Outlander, and my subscription to CBS because I know you want to see Star Trek. You want anything else, you talk to them.” He squeezed Harry’s bicep with one hand while jerking a thumb at the rest of Team Flash with another. Harry’s hand rested on top of his, silently squeezing thanks. 

“Dad! You’ve gotta see my room. Wally made it himself!”

Harry dropped the PS4 controller on the couch and followed his daughter, a little too close. To the left of the living and dining area was a refurbished set of offices painted a calming shade of teal with dark blue waves painted near the floorboards and clouds on the ceiling. A four poster queen bed sat in the middle of the room, complete with gauzy curtains and what appeared to be an infinite number of pillows. The wall sized window was mostly blocked by a custom made human sized hamster wheel. 

“Cisco and I made sure you can run up to an hour in there without it overheating.” Wally lay a gentle hand on the small of Jesse’s back, “The night view from up here is pretty amazing.” 

“You’re not staying here tonight, West,” Harrison snapped. 

“No sir. Of course not, sir,” said Wally. Jesse winked at him. Her look suggested she wasn’t staying here tonight, either. Harry pretended not to notice. A comfortable, well appointed room where his daughter could sleep on something better than a cot was more than he could’ve hoped for. More than he had managed to provide her himself when they visited this world. 

Jesse snagged Cisco with one arm while squeezing her dad tighter with the other and led them back into the living area. While she kept her father distracted, Barry had clearly done a little shopping on everyone’s behalf. 

When they stepped out of the room, Barry cheerfully held out a small aquarium with an even smaller turtle. Cisco rolled his eyes, but Harry’s smirk seemed oddly charmed. 

Joe West waited with a bottle in hand. “That sad Charlie Brown tree and all the presents are back at my place with the nog,” he said. “This is a house warming present.” 

Harry took the bottle of brandy and warmly shook Joe’s hand. “Let me pour us both a glass.” He glanced around. Cisco pointed him towards a small bookcase stolen from a VP’s office. Two crystal decanters of dubious origin and a set of classily mismatched vintage snifters, highballs, and other drinkware rested on top. 

Cisco took the bottle of brandy from Harry’s hand and poured two glasses. Joe smiled warmly at them both. 

Caitlin grabbed something from behind the makeshift island and held it out to Harry. “I got you a Sous Vide stick. It’s a scientific way of cooking. Seemed like a good house warming present.” She kissed his cheek. He smiled warmly back at her. 

“And I crocheted you an afghan, because these nerds have terrible taste in furniture,” said Iris. She held out a black afghan with midnight blue highlights. She’d actually made it to give his sad cot downstairs a little bit of warmth and comfort, but giving it to him here was even better. 

“Hey!” Wally protested. “That’s the best couch in the entire building!”

Joe sat down, testing the couch gingerly. “Eobard should’ve demanded a refund.” He held out an arm. Iris handed him the afghan, which he draped over the back of the couch, instantly transforming it from generic corporate furniture to something homey. Harry lifted his glass to Joe in a silent toast. Joe smiled back warmly. 

Cisco lay a soft hand on Harry’s forearm. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you sleeping on that nasty ass cot downstairs when you’re here to work with us.” He smiled a little sheepishly. “So Wally and I decided to do something about it.” He swallowed hard, suddenly unable to meet Harry’s eyes. “Merry Christmas,” he whispered.  

Harry gripped Cisco’s shoulder, holding on a little too long for someone who hadn’t had his first drink yet. “Thank you.” Cisco looked up through his lashes. A smile ticked up the corner of Harry’s lips as the pad of his thumb stroked Cisco’s shoulder. 

The longer Harry and Cisco smiled gently at one another, the more Joe became fascinated by the contents of his glass. Joe was saved from having to fake his own death by Iris sticking her head out of the bathroom. 

“Harrison Wells! You wanna get out of STAR Labs, you come sleep at our loft. Any night you want. Barry and I will crash on your couch to give you some privacy.” She gave Barry a dazzling smile. “And clean up in your shower.” 

Harry’s hand fell guiltily from Cisco’s shoulder. He took an awkward step back. 

Jesse giggled. “Dad, you’ve GOT to see the shower Cisco made you!” 

In addition to the dueling shower heads Cisco installed a steam setting with four scents, a ceiling based rain option with independent temperature controls, and a series of capped hoses set into the wall waiting for future attachments. Cisco refused to make eye contact when people asked him about it. “Central City’s winters get cold and damp. Gotta warm a man up,” he said, completely failing at nonchalance. 

“Barry Allen, you have been one-upped on romantic gestures,” said Iris. She held her hand up to her ear, thumb up and pinky down in a ‘call me’ gesture as she made hard eye contact with Cisco. She mouthed the word ‘birthday’ and glanced significantly at Barry, who blushed. 

The massive bathroom had a Jack and Jill entrance. The side opposite the kitchen opened into a home office. “We pretty much pillaged the evil Dr. Wells office down the hall,” Wally admitted. 

“Eobard may have been evil, but he had class,” Cisco added. 

One entire wall of the former Chief Information Officer’s office was a single massive window. Every other bit of blank wall was lined with wood bookshelves. A sturdy wood desk sat in the middle of the room, while discrete work stations were folded into middle shelves of every other bookcase. On the opposite side was one last door. 

“Nope,” said Joe. “I don’t wanna see what kind of bedroom Cisco dreamed up for you.” 

Iris and Caitlin obviously did. They drifted towards the door, grinning at one another. Joe stopped them with a firm hand on each of their shoulders. “There’s nog and presents at my place!” Joe announced, a little too loud. “Cisco, wanna breach us all there?” 

Harry’s eyes narrowed at the door, obviously curious. Wally looked like he was about to protest that the big reveal wasn’t over, but Jesse grabbed his hand and squeezed hard. 

“West Family & Friends Christmas coming up!” said Cisco. He raised his fist and a liquid blue and silver glow erupted in the makeshift office. Joe jumped through the breach, still holding his brandy snifter. Iris gave the bathroom one last wistful look before grabbing Barry’s hand and jumping through together. 

Jesse pushed Cisco’s hand down, closing her hand around his fist. The breach closed. “We’ll meet you two there,” she said. “I feel like stretching my legs.” Grinning widely, Jesse and Wally disappeared in a streak of light, leaving only Cisco, Harry, and the turtle. 

Cisco shuffled against the industrial carpet, suddenly struck with a bout of shyness. “The presents at Joe’s multiplied like Gremlins,” he said.    
  


“Did you feed them after midnight?” asked Harry. 

Cisco’s head tilted sideways. “What would you even feed a wrapped present?” 

Harry’s eyes narrowed, taking in Cisco’s Tesla t-shirt and skinny jeans. “Depends on what’s inside it.” 

“This was just from me and Wally.”  Cisco swallowed hard. “Your other presents are at Joe’s.” 

“None of them will be as good as this one, Ramon.” Harry’s low voice went gravely. 

Cisco stared at his shoes. Admittedly, they were bitchin. “I wanted you to have some place on this Earth to call home.” 

Harry let go of his bedroom door handle and closed the distance between them. He stood just inside Cisco’s personal bubble, too close to be casual, but not quite touching him. “I know where my home is,” he said, staring intently at Cisco’s face. 

Cisco wished he’d had a brandy. Or four. He stared up into Harry’s ice blue eyes, trying to summon enough courage to push up on his tiptoes and do the thing he was pretty sure they were both thinking about. Instead, he rested a fluttering hand on Harry’s chest. Harry stared down at it, unmoving. 

Cisco peered up through his lashes. “The rest of the team is expecting us at Joe’s.” 

“No they’re not.” Harrison swallowed the rest of his brandy in one gulp, then lay a hand on top of Cisco’s. “But let’s surprise them by showing up.” He sat down the glass, still holding onto Cisco’s hand. “Then you can surprise me with whatever’s behind that door.”   
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I know it's WAY after Christmas, but I had to wait for Archive of Our Own to let a fan-fic n00b like me join. 
> 
> With so much perfectly usable abandoned space in Earth-1 STAR Labs I've always wondered why Harry is still sleeping on a cot in the closet. It'd be so darn easy for the speedsters to refurbish unused parts of STAR Labs into an apartment for visiting guests! I also knew it'd be so much more stylish if Cisco and Wally did it, and they both have excellent motivations to make the Wells look forward to their time on Earth-1. 
> 
> This is my very first fanfic. If you enjoyed it at all, please R&R as encouragement for me to keep writing. :)


End file.
